Favorite Places: Cornell Lab Staff

Choosing the best locations for birding is very subjective. The best birding hot
spot for you might be your own back yard or a nearby park. But if you’re in the
mood to expand your ornithological horizons, you may benefit from the recommendations
offered here by some members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology staff. They’ve checked
things out ahead of time and now all you have to do is get there and keep your eyes
open! Good birding!

Recommendations by state:

Alabama

Audubon Bird Sanctuary, Dauphin Island

Recommended by: Caren Cooper, Data Analyst, Bird Population Studies

“This is one of my favorite birding hot spots because they have huge fallouts of
migrants and a great variety of species.”

Gambell, St. Lawrence Island

Recommended by: John Fitzpatrick, Cornell Lab of Ornithology director

Why special: one million+ birds in view (and in motion) 24-hours a day during June;
Native American village, bowhead whale and seal economy; remote access, with full
exposure to the awesome biological richness of the Bering Sea.

Habitat: rocky tundra; pebble beaches; cliffs

When to go: June

Birds to look for: all four species of eiders; Yellow-billed Loon; Emperor Goose;
Parakeet, Crested and Least auklets; Horned Puffin; numerous shorebirds on breeding
grounds; Siberian vagrants in late May and early June.

Arizona

Saguaro National Park (east unit), west of Tucson

“At the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum the wild birds are as tame and approachable
as the captive ones. The exhibits in the park and the museum give you a great introduction
to the habitat and desert birds.”

Habitat: Sonoran desert

When to go: any time; birding is best in the cooler early hours of the day

East side of Huachuca Mountains, southeast of Tucson

Why special: You’ll find several Mexican bird species as you explore different areas
with a minimum of driving. You can go quickly from the San Pedro River (Green Kingfisher),
through the riparian forest along mountain streams (Elegant Trogon) up to mountain
coniferous forests (Hepatic Tanager) as the day heats up. This mountain range also
holds the only regularly-observable Buff-bellied Flycatchers in the United States.

Mogollon Rim, South and east of Flagstaff

Why special: The plateau that the Grand Canyon cuts through has an abrupt end with
a sharp drop south of Flagstaff; this drop is the Mogollon Rim. This makes for an
interesting juxtaposition of birds. You can watch a “northern” Orange-crowned Warbler,
right next to Virginia’s Warbler and Red-faced Warbler. Saw-whet and Flammulated
owl can be sleeping a stone’s throw away from each other. Evening Grosbeaks and
Lesser Goldfinch can be seen on the same day. Red-breasted, White-breasted, and
Pygmy nuthatches are all present. The deep canyons that cut into the Rim hold Black
Hawks (for example north of Sedona in Oak Creek Canyon).

Monterey Bay, sw of San Francisco

“The richness of life on the open ocean can be surprising. Imagine being distracted
from a huge flock of ocean-going birds by a blue whale or sea turtle. Pelagic birding
trips by boat into Monterey Bay will give you the best views, but the on-shore birding
isn’t bad either.”

Habitat: open ocean, coastal California scrub

When to go: August to October (the bird species present vary dramatically through
the year)

Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco

Recommended by: Tim Gallagher, Living Bird editor-in-chief

Why special: This large area encompasses many kinds of habitat and terrain yielding
an equally-impressive array of birds, including the rare Spotted Owl, Pacific Golden
Plover, as well as raptors, vagrants, and migrants.

Why special: A great place with a wide range of habitats; Point Reyes Bird Observatory
has a major trapping and banding operation there.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville

Why special: This place is saturated with birds and other wildlife, especially during
migration and winter. Cruising around the Black Point Wildlife Drive you see hundreds
of herons, egrets, and ducks. We watched a family of otters cavorting up the waterway
near our car.

Maine

Bald Head Cliff, York

Why special: One of the southernmost rocky peninsulas along the Maine coast, this
site is well-known as a guaranteed location to see Harlequin Ducks at close range
from late fall through early spring. The area abounds in other sea ducks and wintering
waterbirds and is a great place to watch for alcids and Black-legged Kittiwakes
in winter.

Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport

Why special: One of few Maine breeding locations for the endangered Piping Plover
and Least Tern. Roseate and Arctic terns have bred on the offshore islands, and
a small colony of Common Terns has also bred nearby. A program is in place to educate
the public and protect the birds, sponsored by Maine Audubon.

Habitat: Sandy beach, with small offshore islands and a tidal river

When to go: In summer, seeing Least Terns and Piping Plovers are a virtual guarantee,
especially if you’re willing to stroll the beach. In winter, sea ducks are always
around.

Massachusetts

Katama Farm, Edgartown

Recommended by: Ben Clock, Macaulay Library video archivist

Why special: This beautiful preserved meadow is also a stone’s throw from the ocean,
with nice salt marsh grasses. It is also hHome to breeding Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed
Sparrows. Nice spot to catch views of fall migrant shorebirds.

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Bloomington

Recommended by: Jesse Ellis, former graduate student

Why special: It's long and it's urban, and is therefore easily accessible. It protects
habitat both for resident breeding species such as Prothonotary Warbler and Dickcissel,
and for a massive number of migrants of all types, including ducks and more than
20 species of wood-warblers.

New Jersey

Cape May

Recommended by: Tim Gallagher, Living Bird editor-in-chief

“As a raptor freak, this is a heavenly place to be in early October when hordes
of Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, and other favorite hawks of mine are blasting through.
There are also lots of migrating songbirds in spring and fall.”

Niagara Falls, Buffalo

Why special: The gull capital of the world. An important area for Bonaparte’s and
other gulls (an estimated 20% or more of the world’s population of Bonaparte’s Gulls
use the area).

Habitat: fresh-water river; waterfalls. The falls stir up the water below, and the
result is a feeding frenzy.

When to go: October through December

Birds to look for: Gulls—Franklin’s, Sabine’s, Black-headed, Glaucous, Iceland,
Little, Black-legged Kittiwake, Great Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed. Look for
other rare birds along the river; a Pacific Loon was found here one year, for example.

Oregon

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Malheur County

Why special: A huge wetland in the middle of dry Great Basin country, this site
attracts both migrants and breeders that are not easily found in other areas of
the state.

Habitat: large marshes; sage-brush; some riparian woodland.

When to go: mid-spring and fall for migrants; all summer for breeding wetland and
sagebrush birds

Birds to look for: Several oases, such as the Refuge Headquarters, attract huge
concentrations of migrating passerine birds when conditions are right, including
western rarities such as Black-and-White Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and many
others. At times the trees drip with hundreds of Western Tanagers, Bullock's Orioles
and Lazuli Buntings. Many shorebird species pass through, as well as hawks. Long-billed
Curlew, Wilson's Phalarope and Avocets breed. Ferruginous and Swainson's hawks,
as well as Golden Eagle, are also resident. Riparian habitat attracts Ash-throated
Flycatcher, Great-Horned Owl, and others.

South Jetty of the Columbia River, Clatsop County

Why special: A great place both for shorebirds and seabirds, as well as a great
migrant trap for anything.

Habitat: open coast; tidal estuary; coastal pine woodland

When to go: Almost any time of year. Bad weather sometimes means good birds!

Birds to look for: During migration, this is a great place for shorebirds. The estuary
attracts large flocks of peeps including Baird's and the rarer Semipalmated Sandpiper,
while the rocky jetty hosts Black Turnstone and Wandering Tattler. Migrating alcids
and loons, grebes and shearwaters fly by in sometimes mind-boggling numbers, and
the river itself, as well as the shore, can host a wide variety of gulls. Wrentits
and sometimes rare wandering passerines can be found in the woods, and the jetty
was one of the spots to host a Bristle-thighed Curlew in Oregon in 1996.

Texas

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Brownsville

“Within the refuge boundaries it is possible to see everything from Rosette Spoonbill
and Reddish Egret, to Mexican “exotics” like Green Jay and Plain Chachalaca. This
sort of diversity cannot be matched anywhere else in southern Texas in a single
day of birding at one location.”

South Padre Island Convention Center, near Brownsville

Why special: It is possible to see every single species of U.S. rail, particularly
in winter, along a couple of short boardwalks built into the salt marshes that lie
between South Padre Island and mainland Texas.

Habitat: coastal salt marsh

When to go: winter (High tide is better for flushing the rails out of the salt marsh.)

Utah

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, west of Brigham City

Why special: Imagine standing on one spot and slowing turning around, seeing literally
dozens of American Avocet nests, while flocks of White-faced Ibis fly against a
backdrop of rugged mountains. Western and Clark’s Grebes can be watched in their
courtship dashes across the water surface. The concentration of waterfowl, shorebirds
and larger waders in the right seasons is amazing, especially in contrast to the
more arid habitats typical of the Great Basin.

Washington

Ellensburg, east of Seattle on Interstate 90

Why special: This isn’t a single site, but a general area that packs a range of
habitats into a small area, with a variety of species present that have fairly restricted
ranges or habitat preferences. You can travel quickly from lowland sagebrush (Sage
Thrasher) up to ponderosa pine forest (White-headed Woodpecker), see American Dippers
in snow-fed streams, and scan cliff faces for nesting Prairie Falcons and other
raptors.

Birds to look for: Large flocks of Short-billed Dowitchers, Whimbrel and Black-bellied
Plover (near Bay Center). Large flocks of peeps (perhaps best seen from Leadbetter
State Park); almost any species of shore-bird; Parasitic Jaegers sometimes harass
the Caspian Terns that are common; peregrines go for shorebirds; Wilson's Warbler
and Rufous Hummingbird nest in the thickets along the bay; and huge flocks of Sanderling
can be found on the open beach on the west side of the state park.